Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, has criticized the efficiency of Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment network, only to meet heavy backlash from the crypto community.

During an interview with the Financial Times, Bankman-Fried fueled environmental concerns associated with the Bitcoin network’s mining consensus proof-of-work (PoW) and claimed it’s not scalable enough to accommodate millions of transactions.

He advocated for the use of proof-of-stake (PoS) mining consensus instead and claimed it is better suited for blockchain payment networks. He said:

“Things that you’re doing millions of transactions a second with have to be extremely efficient and lightweight and lower energy cost. Proof of stake networks are.”

Bankman-Fried comments resonated with the recent calls for a complete ban on PoW by a group of billionaire lobbyists comprising Ripple co-founder and several other environmental groups. However, Bitcoin proponents have been actively fighting against the ongoing narration calling for a change in the code of the Bitcoin network’s mining consensus.

Related: Eager to work: Bitcoin switch to proof-of-stake remains unlikely

The likes of Jack Dorsey have already made it clear that PoS is more centralized and less secure than PoW.

The crypto community was not very pleased with FTX CEO’s recent comments. Many claimed the Bitcoin network is not intended to be a payment network, but rather a settlement one and layer-2 (L2) solution, such as the Lightning Network, t act as the main payment gateway. One user wrote:

“Either SBF or FT lying here. What happens…